Stardock Entertainment announces a chance to take another ride on the virtual election cycle with the release of The Political Machine 2012, an updated version of this simulation of the squeaky clean world of U.S. politics. Here's the deal:

Calling all armchair presidential candidates! Today Stardock Entertainment announced the 2012 edition of its popular political strategy game, The Political Machine. Play as a myriad of political powerhouses including Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich or create your own candidate from scratch and march toward the White House in the best election simulator available. The Political Machine 2012 is available now for $9.95 through most digital distributors, including Steam (http://store.steampowered.com/app/211120/). It requires a Windows PC and an Internet connection to download.

The Political Machine 2012 features updated political topics from across the United States such as Afghanistan, the economy, Obamacare, income inequality, gun control, gay rights and the national debt. Regional issues require the candidate to walk a tight rope between appealing to the widest range of voters and appearing to “flip flop”.

Players take to the campaign trail against a computer controlled opponent or a human challenger over the Internet. Can you conduct a campaign savvy enough to win the hearts and minds of America’s voters to achieve victory in the 2012 presidential election?

Stardock CEO and President Brad Wardell stated, “The algorithms involved in this simulator are frighteningly accurate. When playing the game as true to reality as possible, the last two presidential election results came very close to what the game ultimately predicted.”

The 2012 version includes user interface features allowing for fans to create custom candidates and post them on Facebook, Steam achievements, graphical improvements, new gameplay features and more.

oh, I forgot to mention that the economy is doing fine! We added new jobs, but for some reason I started with more jobs? Sorry for the new type of math we use, we just want to be transparent and let everyone know what we are doing! Oo Oh, ya and how you can tell we are telling the truth is we take responsibility for all the good and blame Bush for all the bad! Pretty smart, huh?

jdreyer wrote on Jul 31, 2012, 21:56:You know, I love politics, and I love games, but the idea of a game based on politics is just so unappealing? Is it just me? Maybe I feel this way because games are fantasy and politics is reality?

Actually, there's a board game called 1960: The Making of a President that's *excellent*, a real brain-burner.

jdreyer wrote on Jul 31, 2012, 21:56:You know, I love politics, and I love games, but the idea of a game based on politics is just so unappealing? Is it just me? Maybe I feel this way because games are fantasy and politics is reality?

Actually, there's a board game called 1960: The Making of a President that's *excellent*, a real brain-burner.

jdreyer wrote on Jul 31, 2012, 21:56:You know, I love politics, and I love games, but the idea of a game based on politics is just so unappealing? Is it just me? Maybe I feel this way because games are fantasy and politics is reality?

Actually, there's a board game called 1960: The Making of a President that's *excellent*, a real brain-burner.

jdreyer wrote on Jul 31, 2012, 21:56:You know, I love politics, and I love games, but the idea of a game based on politics is just so unappealing? Is it just me? Maybe I feel this way because games are fantasy and politics is reality?

They have enough fantasy to them that they're pretty fun games if you have any interest in the process itself. You really don't ever worry about the real issues outside of the context of the game; no agendas or stress involved.

I haven't tried this one yet, but I liked the older ones even if they're not exactly brimming with longevity and depth.

What I do: gut the military (look at what say, rather than what I do!)

OBama, 2012!

Paid for by: the left wing media and drones that would believe anything that people say.

Which is generally not what he did (see: general DOD/Pentagon budget increases during Obama administration http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:InflationAdjustedDefenseSpending.PNG ), but the interesting thing here is that you can't even do this in the game itself. Everyone is considered a candidate and no one is an incumbent who gets to run on their record as president or do things as president that could affect their polling/election outcome.